1977 Australian federal election

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English The 1977 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 10 December 1977. All 124 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 64 seats in the Senate were up for election.

The incumbent Liberal-National Country Coalition led by Malcolm Fraser, in government since 1975, was elected to a second term over the opposition Labor Party led by Gough Whitlam. While the Coalition suffered a five-seat swing, it still had a substantial 48-seat majority in the House. The Liberals retained an outright majority, with 67 seats. Although Fraser thus had no need for the support of the National Country Party, the Coalition was retained.

Whitlam became the first and only person to contest four federal elections as Leader of the Opposition. He was unable to recover much of the ground Labor had lost in its severe defeat two years prior, and resigned as leader shortly after the election.

Background and issues

File:1977 Election Australia Gallagher Index.png

The Gallagher Index result: 15.16

The government offering tax cuts to voters and ran advertisements with the slogan "fistful of dollars". The tax cuts were never delivered; instead a "temporary surcharge" was imposed in 1978. The election coincided with the retirement of the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr. Kerr had appeared drunk at the Melbourne Cup in November and the public outcry resulted in the cancellation of his appointment as Ambassador to UNESCO.

The 1977 election was held a year earlier than required, partly to bring elections for the House and Senate back into line. A half-Senate election had to be held by July 1978, since the double dissolution election of 1975 had resulted in the terms of senators being backdated to 1 July 1975, as per Section 13 of the Constitution of Australia.

Results

House of Representatives results

File:Australian House of Representatives elected members, 1977.svg

Government (86)
Coalition
  Liberal (67)
  NCP (18)
  CLP (1)

Opposition (38)
  Labor (38)
Template:Notelist

House of Reps (IRV) — 1977–80—Turnout 95.08% (CV) — Informal 2.52%

File:1977 Australian House.svg

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats	Change
	Liberal–NCP coalition		3,811,340	48.11	–4.95	86	–5
	Template:Australian party style |	Liberal	3,017,896	38.09	−3.71	67	−1
	Template:Australian party style |	National Country	776,982	9.81	−1.44	18	−4
	Template:Australian party style |	Country Liberal	16,462	0.21	+0.00	1	0
Template:Australian party style |	Labor		3,141,051	39.65	−3.20	38	+2
Template:Australian party style |	Democrats		743,365	9.38	+9.38	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Democratic Labor		113,271	1.43	+0.11	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Progress		47,567	0.60	–0.18	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Communist		14,098	0.18	+0.06	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Socialist		1,895	0.02	+0.02	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Independents		50,267	0.63	–0.19	0	0
	Total		7,922,854			124	−3
Two-party-preferred (estimated)
Template:Australian party style |	Liberal–NCP coalition		Win	54.60	−1.10	86	–5
Template:Australian party style |	Labor			45.40	+1.10	38	+2

Popular vote Labor   39.65% Liberal   38.09% National   10.01% Democrats   9.38% Other   2.87%

Two-party-preferred vote Coalition   54.60% Labor   45.40%

Parliament seats Coalition   69.35% Labor   30.65%

Senate results

File:Australian Senate elected members, 1977.svg

Government (34)
Coalition
  Liberal (27)
  National (6)
  CLP (1)

Opposition (27)
  Labor (27)

Crossbench (3)
  Democrats (2)
  Independent (1)
Template:Notelist

Senate (STV) — 1977–80—Turnout 95.08% (CV) — Informal 9.00%

File:1977 Australian Senate.svg

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats won	Seats held	Change
	Liberal–NCP coalition (total)		3,369,843	45.56	–5.18	18	34	–1
		Liberal–NCP joint ticket	2,533,882	34.26	−5.60	7	*	*
	Template:Australian party style |	Liberal	783,878	10.60	−0.48	10	27	+1
	Template:Australian party style |	National Country	36,619	0.50	−0.04	0	6	–2
	Template:Australian party style |	Country Liberal	15,463	0.21	−0.01	1	1	0
Template:Australian party style |	Labor		2,718,876	36.76	−4.15	14	27	0
Template:Australian party style |	Democrats		823,550	11.13	+11.13	2	2	+2
Template:Australian party style |	Democratic Labor		123,192	1.67	–1.00	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Progress		88,203	1.19	+0.32	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Call to Australia		49,395	1.12	+1.12	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Marijuana		44,276	0.60	+0.60	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Socialist		42,740	0.58	+0.57	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Australia		8,283	0.11	–0.37	0	0	0
Template:Australian party style |	Independents		127,850	1.73	+0.13	0	1	0
	Total		7,396,207			34	64

• Independent: Brian Harradine (Tasmania)
• The Progress Party was the renamed "Workers Party" from the 1975 election.

Seats changing hands

Seat	1975				Notional margin REDIRECT Template:Hair space	Swing	1977
	Party		Member	Margin			Margin	Member	Party
Angas, SA	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	Geoffrey Giles	21.5	District abolished
Capricornia, Qld	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	Colin Carige	0.1	1.5	+2.7	1.2	Doug Everingham	Template:Australian politics/name	Template:Australian party style |
Darling, NSW	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	John FitzPatrick	7.5	District abolished
Dundas, NSW	New district				10.0	+0.1	10.1	Philip Ruddock	Template:Australian politics/name	Template:Australian party style |
Evans, NSW	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	John Abel	2.0	District abolished
Fadden, Qld	New district				12.5	–6.5	6.0	Don Cameron	Template:Australian politics/name	Template:Australian party style |
Griffith, Qld	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	Don Cameron	8.0	1.5	+5.0	3.5	Ben Humphreys	Template:Australian politics/name	Template:Australian party style |
Indi, Vic	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	Mac Holten	17.2 REDIRECT Template:Hair space	N/A	N/A	5.1	Ewen Cameron	Template:Australian politics/name	Template:Australian party style |
Lang, NSW	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	Frank Stewart	7.4	District abolished
Parramatta, NSW	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	Philip Ruddock	9.2	–2.5 REDIRECT Template:Hair space	+3.6	6.1	John Brown	Template:Australian politics/name	Template:Australian party style |
Riverina, NSW	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	John Sullivan	11.8	–2.4 REDIRECT Template:Hair space	–2.3	0.1	John FitzPatrick	Template:Australian politics/name	Template:Australian party style |
Wimmera, Vic	Template:Australian party style |	Template:Australian politics/name	Robert King	14.2	District abolished

• Members listed in italics did not contest their seat at this election.

Significance

This election marks the effective parliamentary debut of the Australian Democrats. The former Liberal minister Don Chipp had resigned his seat to leave politics but was soon invited to lead the new party and decided to run as a senator for Victoria. The party's Janine Haines had briefly inherited a South Australian Senate seat when Liberal Movement senator Steele Hall had resigned to contest a lower-house seat. Haines was, however, not preselected to recontest the seat. Don Chipp was elected in Victoria and Colin Mason in New South Wales (Haines returned to the Senate at the following election.)

The second Fraser Government had the second-largest parliamentary majority in Australian history (at the time) after the majority it won in the 1975 election. Gough Whitlam resigned as the leader of the ALP in 1978, and was replaced by Bill Hayden.

This was the last Australian federal election for the House of Representatives at which no women were elected, although there were a number of women candidates. Women have been elected at every federal election from 1980 onwards.

See also

• Candidates of the 1977 Australian federal election
• Members of the Australian House of Representatives, 1977–1980
• Members of the Australian Senate, 1978–1981

External links

• AustralianPolitics.com election details
• University of WA Template:Webarchive election results in Australia since 1890
• AEC 2PP vote